Praise Capt. Paul Watson for his war against whaling in the second season of the Animal Planet series,Whale Wars,"which debuts tonight at 9 p.m.

This year it'll be different because Watson's 2008-09 campaign against whalers in the Antarctic included numerous confrontations -- including three collisions and a very dramatic pursuit through ice -- with Japanese crews that regard Sea Shepherd as a terrorist group.

"They were very aggressive toward us -- the most aggressive I've ever seen them -- so it's a far more dramatic season for that reason," Watson said in an interview this week.

Sea Shepherd's tactics are to disrupt the months-long hunt and any efforts by whalers to transfer harpooned whales onto the processing ship.

The hunt for whales might long be a part of the Japanese culture but Capt. Watson's campaign against whale hunting is honorable. His defend of the wildlife is very courageous and impressive.